The impact of conformity on customer service

Have you ever wondered why a company tends to have consistent service levels amongst all its employees? Sure, there are exceptions here and there, but a company known for poor service tends to be consistent. A company known for great service tends to be consistent too.

Why is that? One explanation could be the pressures of social confirmity. Employees may give in to social pressure to behave the same way other employees do. This means that if the culture supports poor service, otherwise good employees may lower their own performance rather than feel ostricized by their co-workers.

I've discovered some interesting psychological studies on conformity while conducting research for my book, The Unnatural Act of Customer Service. Here are a couple of short and entertaining YouTube videos that highlight some of the results:

This one recreates the famous Asch conformity experiment:

Can't see the video? Click here.

This one is a funny bit from an old Candid Camera episode:

Can't see the video? Click here.

So, what do you think? Can a good customer service employee turn bad in the wrong environment?

3 things small business owners must know about service

Most small business owners face an enormous customer service challenge when they start adding even a few employees. How can you build the capacity to continue growing while preserving the customer-focused culture that fueled your growth in the first place?

If you own a small business, here are three things you should know about customer service.

1. Your employees don’t think the way you do
A small business often becomes part of the owner’s personal identity, so it’s no wonder that business owners take customer service personally. The tough part is realizing your employees don’t look at things that way. Even if they have exceptional customer service skills, it's extremely difficult for them to view customer service through the eyes of a business owner. It's up to you to ensure your employees clearly understand your customer service expectations.

2. Experience and talent are not the same thing
Small businesses all have their unique cultures, so it is important to hire employees who will fit with that culture. A talented employee may or may not have a lot of experience, but they should have a strong desire to work in a company like yours. Perhaps more importantly, they must have the right attitude to work with an owner like you.

3. You need to get out of the way, but don't stop leading
Your employees aren't going to handle every customer interaction exactly the same way you would. Some owners waste time and stifle productivity by over-managing their employees. Other owners risk poor customer service by being too hands off. A good small business owner finds the right balance of leadership and empowerment to get the most out of their employees while still offering the proper coaching and guidance to help their employees grow.

What else should a small business owner know about customer service?

Why customer service training is essential for younger workers

Businesses who tend to employ younger employees are doing themselves, their customers, and their employees a disservice if they fail to provide training on basic customer service skills.

Here are three reasons why:

Young employees lack experience
Much of our customer service know-how comes from the experience of seeing what works and what doesn't. Unfortunately, young employees are gaining less and less experience. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that only 48.9% of of Americans ages 16 - 24 had a summer job in 2010. That figure is closer to 30% in my home town of San Diego according to Mark Cafferty, the CEO of the San Diego Workforce Partnership. 

All of this means that young employees will be gaining their customer service experience courtesy of your company. If you don't provide them with training they'll likely learn most of their skills from trial and error. I don't think your customers would appreciate the error part.

Young employees find it harder to empathize
A core customer service skill is the ability to empathize with a customer. This allows employees to see things through their customers' eyes and prevent or resolve problems quickly. Empathy comes from having a similar or relatable experience, but younger employees simply lack many of the life experiences that could allow them to empathize. 

Employees can be taught to empathize through training and coaching. Ironically, one of the qualities younger employees need from their supervisor or customer service trainer is the ability to empathize with being young and inexperienced.

Great customer service isn't obvious
Businesses often fail to provide customer service training to their frontline employees because great customer service seems obvious to business owners, managers, and supervisors. Unfortunately, the steps to providing great customer service may not be obvious to your employees. (Check on my previous post on the subject.)

Younger employees who lack on the job and life experience may have the most difficult time figuring out the right thing to do. Leaders should set clear expectations for customer service and then provide all employees with the required training, tools, and resources to meet those expectations. They should also be especially patient with younger employees who are learning on the job.

Are your supervisors creating service problems?

"Praise in public, reprimand in private" is a business maxim that almost everyone has heard of. I witnessed a prime example of why this is true while enjoying a light breakfast in a bakery last week.

My morning serenity was shattered by a loud, piercing voice coming from behind the bakery counter. It caught my attention and I looked up to see a woman who appeared to be a supervisor addressing three other employees.

“This is the second ticket mess-up! Ladies, this ticket has been sitting here for five minutes! Please be careful!”

Her words, tone, and demeanor were all unpleasant and all the customers in the bakery were staring as her employees shirked away from her verbal tirade.

My breakfast was suddenly much less enjoyable. 

The obvious point to this story is it is never a good idea to reprimand an employee in public unless someone is in immediate physical danger. However, I’m willing to bet that even the screeching supervisor would know this if you removed her from the heat of the moment.

So, why did she do it anyway?

It's hard to know her specific motivations, but if I owned the bakery I certainly wouldn't want to see this type of behavior from one of my supervisors. 

Business leaders and owners need to do three things to make sure their supervisors are effectively representing the business and not becoming the source of poor customer service.

Assess job fit. People often get promoted because they are really good at their job, but leading others is a completely different skill set. Business leaders need to make sure their supervisors have what it takes to effectively lead other people. If the bakery owner hired a supervisor who doesn't have the make-up to do that job then I blame the bakery owner, not the supervisor.

Reduce pressure. Supervisors are expected to handle pressure, but everybody has their breaking point. When business owners cut costs, they can sometimes leave their supervisors feeling like they are trying to put out a blazing house fire with a squirt bottle. Business leaders need to make sure they provide the resources necessary to get the job done. 

Supervise the supervisor. Supervisors are entrusted with a lot of responsibility, but they are employees too. They need coaching, guidance, and support like everyone else. If the bakery owner is never around to see and correct poor behavior, it’s likely that the supervisor will make a habit of yelling at employees in front of customers.

Searching for examples of outrageous customers

Would you like to be in a book?

I'm searching for examples of outrageous customer behavior for my forthcoming book, The Unnatural Act of Customer Service. (Check out the whitepaper to get a preview.)

Are you a current or former customer service employee? If you worked as a frontline customer service employee, I want to hear from you.

Please post a comment to this blog to submit your story for consideration. Here's what I'd like to know:

1) First name

2) Your job (server, sales associate, etc.)

3) Type of company (restaurant, hotel, call center, etc.)

4) Short story about an outrageous customer's behavior

A few expectations:
If I publish your story it will be first name only to keep it anonymous. I won't be able to include everyone's stories in my book and some may need to be edited for length and clarity. I'll be sure to email you a draft with any edits before putting it in the book.

If your story does make it into the book I'll also send you a free copy.